Destruction and Survival

Spanish colonizers systematically destroyed Maya art in the sixteenth century. Bishop Diego de Landa ordered a mass burning of Maya books at Maní in 1562, recording 27 manuscripts put to the flames along with thousands of sacred images. Only four Maya codices survive today, making them among the rarest documents on Earth.

Yet Maya artistic traditions proved impossible to erase. Indigenous artists wove Christian imagery into traditional forms, hiding ancient symbolism beneath a Catholic surface. Church murals in Guatemala and Mexico still carry Maya cosmological references.